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houses, thirteen of which are occupied by disreputable families, and only three are decently inhabited. All the square belongs to a publican. No. 2 contains twentysix houses, five of which are disreputable. No. 3 is a street of thirty-five houses, seventeen of which are the dwellings of fallen females. No 4 is a large court, with the houses all bad; one-third of them tenanted by Irish. No. 5 is a court with eighteen houses, fourteen of which are bad; with many others which answer to the same description." One can hardly think on these appalling facts without feeling the need of other agencies than either the evangelist or city missionary; for what man can be expected to become so familiar with the poor unfortunate girls who occupy such haunts of sin and crime as to be able to do them good? Happily for us, we have not to put the question, what woman could go amongst her fallen sisters, to seek their present and eternal welfare? for female missionaries are already at work, one of them in connexion with Ebenezer Chapel. And it is indeed wonderful what these female missionaries and Bible women will do. For instance, a short time since, a Bible woman, in the course of her visits in the east of London, called on a very wicked and very rough man, and was received with imprecations, and ordered never to set foot in his house again. She left; but returning in a few days, knocked at his door, and received a similar reception: "Didn't I tell you never to annoy me with your Bibles and your prayers?" "You did," quietly and kindly replied the woman; "but I am not come to read to you. I am come to read to another man upstairs; but he is so rough that I am afraid of him, and have come to ask you to protect me. Will you do it?" "Won't I?" he replied, his sense of honour being moved; and then going before the Bible woman, he knocked at Bill's door, saying, "Now, Bill, here's a good woman come to read the Bible to you, and I am come to protect her; so none of your nonsense, now, but hear what she has got to say," or words to that effect. And he did hear; ay, they both heard. God blessed His own word, and now those men are members of a Christian church in the east of London. If we can multiply agencies of this description, as well as other agencies, and especially call forth all the available talent of our churches for present. duty, and reinvigorate our Christian Instruction Societies in each of the ten unions when formed, who can estimate the amount of good that would be done in London? Let us, then

"Gather them in from the lanes and streets;
Gather them in from the dark retreats;
From the haunts of folly, the dens of crime;
Gather them in the accepted time.'
Gather them in with a burning zeal;
Gather them in for their country's weal;
Gather them in with abundant store,
To be garnered in glory for evermore.'

The spiritually destitute condition of Lambeth and Southwark next engaged the attention of the committee, and through the kindness of the minister and elders of Surrey Chapel, a preliminary meeting was recently held in the library, the Rev. Newman Hall in the chair.

The project of a local union was cordially entertained, and a committee appointed to institute a careful inquiry into the moral statistics of the population within its bounds; the means employed by every denomination with a view to evangelize it; and then to invite a conference meeting, representative of all the churches in the district, for the adoption of such practical agencies as may be required. Preliminary measures are also in progress in most of the other postal districts; and from the kind and cordial spirit in which the scheme has been received whenever it has been considered, there is abundant reason to believe that it will be ultimately realised.

To meet these and other obligations, the committee are now greatly in need of funds. Although the Association does not undertake the building of mission chapels nor the erection of iron rooms, the committee have to report that their chairman, Mr. Samuel Morley, has purchased a site for a model mission in one district, and offered to be at half the expense of an iron room in another; and it is expected that the Chapel-building Society, with whose secretaries and committee the Association cordially unites, will in some way come to our aid. Mr. H. O. Wills of Bristol has offered to build a mission chapel in Bermondsey, if means can be found to sustain an agent; and other friends have expressed themselves as willing to do something more in this direction; but how are the agents to be at first sustained? It is the desire of the committee to raise a special fund of £5,000 for this and the other purposes of their general operations; and with money at command, they feel that just as the committee of the Home Missionary Society is stimulating local effort, and developing local resources for the support of evangelists, by offering a third of the salary wheresoever a competent man can be set to work, the committee of the Congregational Association would seek to stimulate the friends of home evangelization in each locality thus to provide for the evangelization of London. The committee appeal, therefore, to the wealthier churches in the suburbs for help to enable them to aid the poorer classes in the crowded centres of population to brethren who find in the city a mine of wealth, and in the country happy homes, away from the din and clang of sin and sorrow, to help by their donations and annual subscriptions; to all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and truth, for their prayers and their sympathy, that the Divine blessing may rest on the undertaking; for it is "not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord," that London can be evangelized :

"We live for those who love,

For those who know Him true; For the heaven that smiles above, And waits our coming too; For the cause that lacks assistance; For the wrongs that need resistance; For the future in the distance; For the good that we can do." JAMES H. WILSON.

CONGREGATIONAL LIBRARY, December 15, 1862.

NEW CHAPELS, CHAPEL ENLARGEMENTS, ALTERATIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS, SCHOOL BUILDINGS, MINISTERS' HOUSES, AND ORGANS,

Completed and opened during 1861, in Great Britain and Ireland, and the Channel Islands, by Congregational Independents, with the Cost of each Erection, &c.

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The Colonies.

THE COLONIES, ESPECIALLY THOSE OF AUSTRALIA, A HOME FOR BRITISH CONGREGATIONALISTS.

BY THE REV. THOMAS JAMES, SECRETARY OF THE COLONIAL MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

THE fearful and wide-spread calamity which has come upon our countrymen in the cotton manufacturing districts is so absorbing a subject, that it seems almost impracticable to direct our thoughts to any other topic. How most effectually to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, is the one duty that humanity, and especially Christianity, devolves upon all. That out of this sore evil God, in His great mercy and all-wise providence, will ultimately educe lasting good, there cannot be a doubt. In the mean time, no effort should be wanting that can possibly be put forth to save from utter and irremediable ruin the tens of thousands of operatives in the cotton districts who are enduring their terrible sufferings with unmurmuring patience. Such a spectacle the world has never before witnessed. Clearly and unmistakeably may it be traced to the influence which Christian teaching, by our Sabbath schools and faithful Gospel preaching, has diffused.

But, whilst faithfully discharging this present duty, we must not lose sight of others to which, by the circumstances of the age in which we live, we are called. We therefore wish to direct the serious consideration of our readers to the subject indicated by the heading of this paper. We cannot shut our eyes to the fact that there are thousands of families in this land who find it difficult "to provide things honest in the sight of all men." Even in those occupations where comparatively high wages are obtained, it requires more prudence and care than are usually exercised to guard against adverse circumstances to which all are liable, and to provide for sickness and death, which are the lot of all. It is but seldom we find that forecast which makes provision for "a rainy day." But, passing by these, what is the condition of the large class of agricultural labourers whose earnings may be rated at from seven or eight shillings per week to ten or twelve? With what difficulties have such to struggle, to provide the hardest fare on which themselves and families can subsist? With a somewhat extensive acquaintance with our agricultural counties, we have often been agreeably surprised to observe the really decent and even respectable appearance that especially the religious portion of our rustic population present. The annals of our Home Missionary Society and County Associations furnish indubitable evidence of the provident habits which characterise many of the poor in the villages and hamlets of our country. It is gratifying to find in many a "New Year's Card," the humble penny of the poor, given with a cheerfulness and in a spirit which, doubtless, secure the approbation of Him who blessed the poor widow who cast her two mites into the treasury of the Lord. Did our well-to-do tradesmen, and our rich men, con

tribute in their proportion in a like spirit, our various charitable and missionary organizations would never lack support. All this

being admitted, it will still be found that the battle of life is a hard struggle for our labouring population. Why then should they not be prepared, in greater numbers than they ever yet have been, to emigrate to other lands, where, with incomparably less labour, and with far greater probability of success, they may not only secure the necessaries and comforts, but what to them would be the luxuries of life? We refer not to the idle and dissolute. They are a burden and curse to society here, and would be a plague and a mischief there. Everywhere, and in a special degree in a new settlement, if a man will not labour he must starve; if he will not be honest and sober, he must perish.

Are

We ask our readers calmly to look at the prospect which the colonies present for the comfort and worldly prosperity of all-yes! of all who can be induced to go thither with a determination by honest industry to provide for themselves and their families. Are they mechanics? The wages they can easily obtain, and now the low price of the necessaries of life, will enable them to secure everything they can desire, and lay by a provision for their children when they require to be started in life; or, should they themselves be called to descend to an early grave, to leave an ample provision for their survivors. they agriculturists? Then let such, and we desire specially to appeal to such, consider the vast territories that are waiting for the cultivation which they would be able to bestow. In Canada, in Port Natal, and emphatically in all the Australias, there are literally millions of acres of the most fertile land under the wide heavens, that require only the spade and the plough to bring forth an abundance sufficient to reward the most enlarged desires of the most sanguine husbandman that ever tilled the ground. As an illustration of this, we may state a case that occurred a very few years ago. There was a number of agricultural labourers earning a miserable pittance of eight shillings a week in the county of Oxford. They were induced and assisted to emigrate to the colony of Victoria. They found their way to a place called Muddy Creek, so designated because of the richness of the soil. In the year 1859, they were visited by the Rev. J. L. Poore in one of his missionary tours. "On his arrival," he states, "they were engaged in their fourth harvest, and in the enjoyment of rude luxury and abundance; and, best of all, enjoying independence of thought and action. They have a chapel of their own building, and though many of them are not Congregational in theory, they are so in fact, for no man has cared for them. They have managed their

own affairs-they edify one another-they teach the young, and have established among themselves all the ordinary engagements of the Sabbath, and I was the first minister that ever preached in their chapel. In the early days of their settlement, they worshipped under the shade of the beautiful light-wood tree; then they put up a shed, and have now a stone chapel that will hold 100 persons. I preached to them a harvest sermon, and although they had been in the fields from five in the morning to seven in the evening, yet, at eight o'clock, I had a congregation of ninety souls, and the word of God seemed precious to them." What a contrast does this scene present to the previous history of these thriving settlers! Then, they were almost starving upon eight shillings a week, and exposed to the neglect, if not the persecution, of the squirerarchy of the parish in which they resided, and to the oppression of a dominant church. Now, every want was abundantly supplied, and in every sense of the word they were free as the air they breathed. As an interesting sequel, Mr. Poore adds, "that one of the Muddy Creek people had gone down to a place called Belfast, about sixty miles distant, with his team to fetch up stores. On his way back, having encamped for the night, early in the morning, before he yoked up his cattle, he read the word of God, and, according to his custom, knelt down and prayed. He was observed whilst thus engaged by a man passing near, who, attracted by the unusual spectacle of a bullock-driver on his knees before God, drew near and joined himself to him. He was from Mount Rouse, about twenty miles from Muddy Creek. The result was that the praying man and another of the people walked over the next Sunday morning to Mount Rouse, and there began public worship, which is carried on till now, and the people are building a chapel." Such is a simple, unvarnished account of the state of things on the other side of the globe. The wonder is, that multitudes of our starving operatives and agricultural labourers are not more willing to leave the troubles and difficulties that now all but overwhelm them, and go at once to a region so inviting. The Rev. Mr. Cuthbertson, during his sojourn in this country, has in many of his addresses at public meetings made most striking representations confirmatory of the views here set forth.

It is a remarkable fact, that amongst the thousands of emigrants that annually leave our shores, very few Congregationalists are found. We feel a difficulty to account for this. Are the members of cur churches and the attendants at our chapels in better circumstances than others, and therefore need not seek a new and improved home? Or, have they less of a spirit of enterprise than other denominations? Or, which we fear is sometimes the case, do they on leaving their native country forget their principles, and join other sections of the Christian church; or, abandoning even the profession of religion, join no church at all? We would press these inquiries on our readers, and implore them to lay the whole matter seriously to heart, and conscientiously inquire whether it is not a duty they owe to their families, by so essen

tially improving their worldly circumstances, and to the cause of God, by carrying to these young and rapidly rising communities those living principles of evangelical truth and ecclesiastical church polity which we believe are taught in the inspired records of the New Testament. Without even seeming to undervalue the labours of other evangelical denominations, we can conceive of no greater blessing that could be conferred on these infant nations, than a large accession to the number of Congregational churches. The distinctive principles professed by them affect the vitality of the kingdom of Christ. The most perfect unrestrained freedom of thought and action in religious matters-the purity of the fellowship of the church-and the utter abnegation of State-aid in support of any one or of all denominations of professing Christians. These are the great and fundamental principles for which we witness, in connexion with the essential doctrinal truths which we hold in common with all evangelical Protestants.

The history of all our colonies demonstrates beyond a doubt that these principles are preeminently suited to the colonial mind. It was the boast of the Apostle Paul, when writing to the Philippians, that he was "set for the defence of the Gospel." So our churches planted in the midst of these incipient nations are set for the defence" of these great principles of truth and liberty. It is the mission entrusted to us by Him who is Lord of all, fidelity to whom constrains us to "contend earnestly" for them, notwithstanding the difficulties by which we are beset. They are the essential characteristics of the kingdom of Christ, the nature of which, it has been well observed, "mankind are slow to learn and quick to forget."

One of the difficulties with which our churches have to contend, are the Stategrants in money or lands, or both, still made in some of the colonies. The Episcopalians, the Roman Catholics, the Presbyterians of the old school, and the Wesleyan Methodists unhesitatingly receive these in a pro ratâ proportion to their numbers. Their places of worship are consequently built, and their ministers are partially supported, before our brethren have had time, or possessed the pecuniary resources to enable them to purchase the land and erect their church-buildings. It may be easily seen that this gives an immense advantage to those denominations over such as depend exclusively on the voluntary principle to sustain their operations. Even members of our own churches, arriving at a settlement where they find a chapel raised by Government money, and a minister partially sustained by State-aid, are tempted to unite themselves with such, and are thereby lost to the cause of freedom. We are happy, however, to know that whilst our churches labour under this disadvantage, the press is to a great extent in their favour. By a wise and judicious and withal vigorous use of a free press, they have sometimes been enabled to defeat measures proposed in their legislatures, which it was thought would prove prejudicial to the cause of education and religion. By the same medium, too, they have advocated the abolition of State-aid to religion with so much power and effect, that there is good reason to

hope the time is now at hand when all the Australian colonies will efface from their statute-book every vestige of laws which we believe to be in opposition to His will who alone has authority in His church.

That withholding State-grants in support of religion is no hindrance to its progress, yea, that it greatly promotes its growth, is demonstrated by the history of South Australia. From the very commencement of that colony, chiefly by the energetic efforts of the late Rev. T. Q. Stow and the few friends that rallied round him, no law was ever enacted for the support of the religious views of any party, by grants either of money from the public purse, or of sites for church-buildings from what are called the waste-lands of the colony. This state of perfect freedom has so manifestly proved advantageous to the cause of religion, that even the episcopal bishop of Adelaide has publicly avowed his opinion that for the colonies he believes the voluntary principle to be right. As a further evidence of the effect of the free in opposition to the compulsory support of religion, we would cite the testimony of the South Australian Register, which in the year 1858 published an authenticated statistical statement of the provision made the previous year for public worship in the colony. "The increase in the population of the colony during the year was at the rate of 5 per cent., while the increase of the number of places of worship was 34 per cent., in church accommodation 36 per cent., and in the average attendance of 30 per cent. Church extension, it will be seen, has outstripped the demand for church accommodation, but still the ratio of increase of attendance on religious ordinances has exceeded the ratio of increase of population in the proportion of 6 to 1." If this is not demonstration

in favour of the voluntary principle, then we must despair of the sufficiency of any argument that fact or reason can furnish to produce conviction. We have reason to believe, if we could obtain more recent statistics, the same result would be found.

There is another important principle firmly held by our churches, which has sometimes proved a hindrance to their progress. We refer to the purity of fellowship. We dare not, either at home or in the colonies, admit to the fellowship of the church any whom we have not satisfactory reason to believe Christ will own as His genuine disciples. The church must not consist of "wood, hay, stubble," but only, as far as we are able to judge, of "gold, silver, precious stones." While some other denominations are lax in their views of communion, our churches with their pastors are thought by such to be too strict. We are content to suffer whatever disadvantage this might occasion, and to be witnesses for God and Christ in this particular. If it was proper, we could adduce evidence to prove that the silent force of our example, in thus maintaining the purity of communion, has had a beneficial influence on other denominations, whose views on this important subject have undergone considerable modifications, and whose churches have consequently been augmented in the power which true piety only can impart.

In bringing this paper, perhaps already too long, to a close, we would affectionately but

very earnestly ask our readers to ponder very seriously the statements we have laid before them. We are deeply concerned for the colonies themselves. They are rapidly growing into mighty nations. They must soon or late become independent communities. What they will then be in freedom, righteousness, religion, depends on what we do for them now. In this, as in every thing, we work for futurity. Even the husbandman tills and sows his ground in hope of a future harvest. The statesman assists in concocting schemes and framing laws for the future benefit of the nation. The merchant risks his property when he sends his merchandise to the ends of the earth, expecting a future return. In like manner all our missionary schemes are devised and supported for the future benefit of the tribes for whose conversion we labour and pray. It would be childish folly or sheer fanaticism to expect the heathen would at once cast away their idols the moment the missionary relates to them the "story of the cross." He cheerfully labours day by day, and year after year, anticipating the future, when the bright vision of Scripture prophecy on which his faith steadfastly gazes shall become a reality, when the glory of God shall be seen throughout every region, and the songs of salvation float in every breeze. In like

manner, in all our colonies, the efforts put forth for the diffusion of the principles of truth and holiness as taught in the Scriptures, are intended not only for the present benefit of those who sincerely imbibe them, but are equally designed by their Divine Author for the permanent good of the nations whose character is moulded, and whose laws are impregnated by them, even as good seed is cast into the ground in the believing anticipation of a future and abundant harvest. The history of colonisation furnishes the most striking illustration and demonstrative evidence that what society is in its beginning, that it will be in its subsequent development. In confirmation of this remark, we need only refer to the New England States of America, which were founded by men of enlightened minds and earnest piety. Notwithstanding the mighty obstacles with which they had long to struggle, they continued to increase in numbers and intelligence until the memorable contest by which they became an independent and powerful nation. The Pilgrim Fathers carried with them the high and holy principles of the Christian faith, implanting them as in virgin soil, where they continue to this day to produce a rich and glorious harvest. True and sad it is that a blight has come over those fair and gladsome regions. A terrific warcry has mingled even with the songs of Zion, converting their harmony into discord. But we cannot relinquish the hope that even yet the better principles of the Gospel of peace will triumph, and He who "rides upon the storm" will overrule these truly appalling evils for permanent and lasting good.

It was under the influence of convictions like these, the Colonial Missionary Society was formed twenty-six years ago. The following extract from its second Annual Report describes the views entertained by its founders. "It labours to spread the Gospel among expatriated Britons, a portion of our

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